INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Taylor Swift isn’t holding back about the Ticketmaster debacle, saying it “really pisses me off” that her fans were stymied in their efforts to purchase tickets for her upcoming concert tour due to demand that overwhelmed the online retail site.
Swift’s “Eras Tour,” her first since 2018, is set to begin March 18 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The U.S. leg of the tour is scheduled to conclude with five performances at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Aug. 3-5, and Aug. 8-9.
But the ticket-selling process has been troubled from the start, with some pre-sale dates pushed back due to overwhelming demand earlier this week, and Friday’s public on-sale date canceled altogether by Ticketmaster.
On her Instagram account Friday, Swift issued a lengthy statement expressing frustration over the foibles. She didn’t mention Ticketmaster by name, but she made her displeasure clear.
“There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward,” she wrote. “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
“And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities to get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”
Ticketmaster announced Thursday that it was calling off Friday’s planned public ticket sales.
“Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift/The Eras Tour has been canceled,” the online ticketing retailer announced on its Twitter page.
The announcement followed delays that occurred earlier this week during pre-sale events due to what Ticketmaster called “unprecedented demand.” Pre-sale tickets had gone on sale Tuesday, but with demand taxing the online system, pre-sales for Swift’s West Coast shows were pushed back by five hours. A pre-sale for Capital One cardholders was pushed back until Wednesday.
The issues with ticketing have led to an uproar among Swift’s fans. The Tennessee state attorney general announced that his office planned to conduct an investigation in response to the numerous complaints.
Ticketmaster previously announced that more than 2 million Swift tickets were sold on Tuesday, setting a single-day record.
In her statement Friday, Swift noted that she is “extremely protective of my fans.
“We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in-house,” she wrote. “I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
Swift has said that her “Eras Tour” will be “a journey through the musical eras of my career, past & present.” Swift will be joined on the tour by Paramore, beabadoobee, Pheobe Bridgers, girl in red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
More information is available at www.taylorswift.com/events/.
